TW:R Prequel: Time Heals
by torchwoodtimelord
Summary: Losing his lover did more to Jack than just make him depressed. The Doctor finds him, and starts him on the road to recovery. But the TARDIS has other plans. - A Torchwood Resurrection Prequel for Captain Jack Harkness
1. Part 1

**Written by Z**

**Conceived by Z & twtl**

**DISCLAIMER: Jack Harkness, The Doctor, The TARDIS. None of it belongs to us. AT ALL. We also don't lay claim to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.**

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**TORCHWOOD: RESURRECTION**

**PREQUEL 1 - TIME HEALS**

**Part 1.**

Sleep was fitful for the two thousand year old Captain. Nightmares mixed in with blissful dreams. Dreams of what could have been had he made different choices. Nightmares of what became the prison of his reality. "Every day I've been with you, you show me the strangest... saddest things," he said softly, stroking the only part of the TARDIS controls the Doctor had ever shown him how to use.

"It's her way of comforting you," came a voice from behind.

Jack stiffened, frozen in place as he tried to regain his voice. "How long have you been there?" he asked him.

"Long enough."

"Why?" Jack asked, turning to him slowly. "Why does she feed these dreams into my head? Making me relive that moment over again."

"Because you're running away Jack. Always running. She does the same to me when she knows I've made a hard decision." The Doctor's brown eyes seemed to stare unfocused in his direction, but not at him. As if he were remembering something so horrible, so terrible that he dared not speak of it aloud. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts before speaking again. "You're so focused on the what if that you can't see beyond what is. He's gone, Jack. He isn't coming back."

"You could have come. You could have stopped it." The Captain's fists were clenched in anger. An anger he restrained for the sake of their friendship only. For even an immortal, unkillable man knew to strike a Time Lord would bring forth a wrath more terrible than death.

"No, I couldn't," the Doctor said, shaking his head. Jack saw the immense restraint it took him to say those words and not speak what he was truly thinking.

"Why not?!" Jack shouted in frustration. "You could have saved them! All of them! You could have saved him!"

The Doctor squared his shoulders in stubbornness. He had wanted to tell Jack everything once he realized where in the other man's time-line this moment fell. But he couldn't. He cursed the innate inclinations of his people then, to watch and not intervene. He had intervened many a time before, but this... what Jack begged of him, he could not do. Not again.

"No," he said firmly, deciding to throw the laws of time and the etiquette of how to speak of such things to the wind as he had so many times before. He knew the dangers of even speaking such things when for others, they had not happened yet. But he also knew his way around circular insinuation. Suggestion, rather than bold faced fact. "Because I couldn't risk crossing my own time-line. Especially during something like that."

Jack's anger simmered then, and the Doctor saw it in his blue eyes. A confusion, a curiosity that struggled with his emotional pain for dominance. This, he took as a good sign. "I couldn't. When two fixed points come together and they're not supposed to, the temporal fall out sends tidal waves into the continuum. If I'd chosen that situation and that moment, already far too volatile to interfere in from the start, to

cross my own timeline, the end result would be cataclysmic."

He stood there in the corridor, watching Jack as his anger and angst turned inward, tempered now by the subtle clues of his reasons. Knowing Jack as he did, and oh the Doctor knew the man almost better than he knew himself in these years, he knew Jack's attention span would circle back around. It was inevitable for the man who even now in this younger version than the last he had seen him was still older by a millenia, he would come to him again before this trip was over. And he would ask him what he meant.

And the Doctor had already decided to tell him the truth. Well, most of it. But not until he was ready to hear it.

---

They had just saved a colony of Algoloths from the deadly oppression of the Aleelian military when Jack came to him again. The Algoloth chieftain had thrown a celebratory banquet in their honour. The TARDIS was still a week's hike through the forests. But now that the war for Algoloth independence was over, surely they could find themselves a quicker way to reach it. Cut their trek down by at least a day or two.

He was thinking this over one one side of his brain while using the other to introduce the wonders of bananas to the cooks when he felt a strong hand grasp his shoulder.

"We need to talk."

"Oh, Jack! I was just telling these fine connoisseurs of gelatinous foodstuffs that bananas make an excellent source of potassium, and explaining how easy they are to grow. Haven't you noticed the weather here is absolute phenomenal for it? They could have the trees springing up in two months!"

"Doc-"

"Later Jack. Later. Can't you just relax and cut loose for a while? I mean, under normal circumstances I would chide you for flirting with any and everything around you, but it's a party! And I haven't scolded you nearly enough yet."

Jack smiled, trying not to laugh. "You're drunk, aren't you?"

"I'm not drunk. I am sufficiently socially lubricated."

"Same difference Doc."

"You're no fun anymore. Not since-"

"Fine. I'll go. But we do need to talk. Soon."

"Right," he said. "Right. Soon."

The Doctor spent the remainder of the feast avoiding Jack whenever possible. When he crept into their hut later that night, the Captain was sound asleep, much to his relief.

---

Jack was hesitant to leave the Algoloths. In the old days, he would have exploited them to make himself more powerful, more wealthy. Things, he, had changed. He used to say the Doctor was to thank for that. In truth he was partly responsible. But he could not be given full credit. Jack's experiences, his friends, family, and everyone he came into contact with had shaped him into the man he was now. A man he hated and loathed and felt that only death and devastation followed in his wake.

For a time, Jack thought, believed he had reached his breaking point. He had failed them. Failed everyone. His daughter, his grandson, his lover. His planet. It was strange, calling Earth that when he knew it wasn't. When he had been born in such a distant time on a tiny peninsula thousands of light-years away from that blue-green ball circling endlessly in the Sol star system.

And yet, Earth is the planet he loved the more. All of the wonders he had seen, all of the epic battles fought and the cons he had done... Earth had always held a special place in his heart, as it did for the man he traveled with once again. The man he thought could heal any wound. Close any gap, and help you to forget all your troubles when not even a hypervodka could place a dent.

He trailed behind the Doctor now through the thick forests of Ensidra 9. Jack felt naked without his wristband. He'd lost it gambling on his last visit to the _Restaurant and the End of the Universe._ Not that his first trip to the era was all that pleasant. But at least the Restaurant served decent food. Without it, he couldn't even show off, despite there currently no one around to show off to.

"Ah!" the Doctor exclaimed ahead of him, parting a thicket at the edge of a clearing. Jack heard running water up ahead. The TARDIS couldn't be far, if he remembered where they'd parked it correctly.

He came up behind the Doctor, looking over his shoulder. "Well?"

"Home sweet home," the Time Lord said with a smile as he turned his head to find Jack looking back at him.

The fact the Time Lord didn't shy away from his invasion of personal space lately did not escape him. In fact, it only added to the questions he was trying to work out on his own. After what felt like a long moment, the Doctor's smile broadened into one of utter madness. "Race you to the finish line?" he said.

"You're on," Jack replied, barely having time to get the words out before the pinstriped suit was but a blur.

They'd raced along the stream, bending branches back to fling into eachother's face as they tried to be first to the TARDIS. At some point, Jack had caught up with him, and crossed the water to the other bank.

"Cheater!" the Doctor cried as he followed, despite having slowed his pace to allow Jack the lead. They were as two children, then, running through the woods home. The Doctor smiled, and Jack laughed. His worries, for this moment, forgotten.


	2. Part 2

**Written by Z**

**Conceived by Z & twtl**

**DISCLAIMER: Jack Harkness, The Doctor, The TARDIS. None of it belongs to us. AT ALL. We don't own the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. But I hear the food there's great.**

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**TORCHWOOD: RESURRECTION**

**PREQUEL 1 - TIME HEALS**

**Part 2.**

Three months ago, the Doctor had found him in a bar. Not just any bar. The bar of the _Restaurant at the End of the Universe_. And he had no pants. Jack had thought he'd hit rock bottom before. But this... this was subterranean. It wasn't that he felt down on his luck. If it were that simple, he could have just found a random woman, or man, or take John's advice and steal a poodle. He wasn't picky. Anyone, anything to dull the pain.

But the Doctor had found him. And, in a sense, saved him. Not for the first time, and he was sure not for the last. He had asked, occasionally, for the Doctor to do the one thing, the only thing he wanted. To go back, to change the past. But the Doctor, in his stubbornness would always refuse him.

Now, he lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling of his bedroom on the TARDIS. The old girl never stopped in her strange ways of attempted comfort. She knew that in sleep, no one can run away. It was her secret weapon.

Which is why he fought off sleep now. The Captain felt his heart could not take another nightmare of that week of hell. Another blissful sleep filled with what-ifs and could-never-haves. She'd shown him his death, time and again. Occasionally changing it up with a lifetime they could have had. Two versions of it even. A world of endless possibilities she showed him. But always, the old Type 40 returned to the facts.

He had lost everyone that had ever mattered. And he was damaged beyond repair.

Jack had learned to deal with it, over time, as he and the Doctor tumbled through the vortex together. Laughing and cheering and running. There was an awful lot of running. But he wouldn't have it otherwise. They landed on primitive worlds like Ensidra 9. Oh, he loved that one. They could have benefited from a man like him.

They'd landed in Cardiff only once. The Doctor was forced to bribe him to go outside. To spend the day in the city. What the Time Lord had neglected to tell him was that the 'city' was actually a medieval village. Though the pair of them had managed to uncover an insidious plot to poison the village water supply with parasites from space. What kind of parasites, neither of them could figure out exactly. Though they did bear a vague resemblance to a weevil. If weevils could ever be albino. And actually quick on their feet.

The thought sent chills down his spine as he rolled over onto his side to stare towards the chest of drawers the TARDIS had so lovingly provided. Though, he could not recall it being there the last time he had come aboard her.

He let his mind wander, never realizing he was drifting off to sleep all the while.

---

The Doctor was ruffling his hair in thought, taking a step back from the controls. "Hrm... Well, I thought we'd have more time. I don't think he's ready to go yet."

The TARDIS groaned around him.

"I know I know. But I still say he isn't quite ready yet. Jack did say... Old Jack, that is, that it took him ages to get over the hump."

She groaned at him again as he paced around the central column. "I am not! It's for his own good. The longer he's here with me, the better off he is. Besides, he can go whenever he wants to."

He reached down to tinker at the controls, then reached his hand back with a yelp when the sparks started to fly. "Okay okay!" he exclaimed. "Cranky old bird... I'll send him off at the next stop. But I still say that if I keep him here indefinitely, I might be able to break that time seal on-"

She sparked again when he reached out a second time. This time singing the edge of his favorite brown pinstripe jacket. "You win! Now will you stop that so I can adjust the chronometer!"

This, she let him do. But with a moan and a groan to show him he was not pleased with how he was handling such a delicate situation as Jack's emotional well-being.

"See, this is exactly why we decided to leave him on Earth. You get too attatched to the people I bring on here. Always taking things into your own hands." He stopped, as if waiting for her response. "I know you don't have any hands. I was speaking metaphorically." He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Next stop, I'll kick him out, just like you want," he said. The central column lit up as she whirred in triumph at him. "But not before we have that chat."

When next he reached out to adjust her controls, the lights on one entire side went out. "Now don't you start pouting! It was your idea to invite him along in the first place! You knew better than to steal his pants."

The TARDIS groaned at him again. "Yes," he replied. "I know he's got a nice rump. But that doesn't mean you can rip them off him at any point in time and space that you please. Especially when he's drunk. You know what Jack gets like when he's drunk."

The buttons that had gone out now flashed with the TARDIS's laughter. Quickly the Doctor's hands took the opportunity to adjust the necessary controls without risk of getting burned.

---

The next planet was called Helios 3. An Earth-like planet in temperature. Only minor differences. Two suns, blue grass, green sky. The people were orange. And a tan was the color purple. But other than that, Jack found the planet and people to be quite similar.

There were no wars to be fought. No alien invasions to thwart. Nothing particularly to bring them here. The commonness of it was unsettling. It was quiet, too quiet. And Jack didn't like the quiet.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked when they'd stopped by a food stall for a bite to eat. Not having money, he bartered and gave a clutch of bananas to the good man.

"Oh these smell wonderful," he said as if he'd never asked the question.

Jack's smile faded as the Doctor thrust a cup of cold liquid into his hand. The smell of it was stronger than the food in the plastic basket. It smelled faintly of chocolate. With a hint of cinnamon. But the strongest scent was unmistakable. One he hadn't had a whiff of in just over 4 years.

Coffee.

"I'm not thirsty," Jack said, offering the drink back. But the Doctor insisted as well as he could with a mouth full of blue potato-like chunks.

"My GOD it tastes just like chips. Not any chips, but the chips down at that place in Cardiff we all went to with Micky. When Margaret tried to use the extrapolator to surf through the rift. What was that place called... Oh they had the best chips!" the Doctor said, and kept talking even when his mouth was full again.

Jack shook his head and led the man to one of the outdoor tables so he could sit and eat. It gave the older Captain the opportunity to ponder their current situation. Or rather, lack thereof. He wasn't aware that the Doctor was still talking at him until the other man waved a blue chunk in his face on the end of a black spork.

"Earth to Jack? I just asked if you wanted this back."

"Wanted what back?" He turned to fully face him now, looking at his smiling face curiously before catching sight of the familiar old wrist-strap. He reached out, meaning to snatch it from his grasp when the Doctor pulled it back from him.

"Well, I suppose I should..." he said.

"Where did you find it!"

He gave him a wink and a grin. "You're not the only one that likes to gamble, Jack. Three planets back, remember the murder mystery at the Hard Rock Cafe out near Vulcan? Well, I know this guy, who knew this guy, who-"

"You pick-pocketed it."

"I didn't say that."

"You did. You can't gamble to save your life."

"I'll have you know gambling is all I do. I just don't do it with little plastic chips and cheap Time Agency trinkets."

"Right... Now give it."

"Say please."

"Doctor..." Jack said, his voice deepening in warning. "Hand it over."

"One condition," he said with a mischievous smirk, pushing the untouched cup forward towards him from where it sat. "Drink it."

"No."

"Why not?"

"You know why."

"Then you don't get your toy back. Not until you stop avoiding the issue."

"I won't drink it."

"S'fine with me. Just means you'll get into less trouble without it."

"What if I need to hail a ship? Or translate an alien language?"

"The TARDIS is a ship. And she translates everything. Well, nearly everything. There was this time with Rose when we were around a black hole..."

"Doctor, you're acting childish."

"So what if I am? You're older than me anyway. So I have perfect justification to act childish if I want to."

"You're not going to stop, are you?"

The Doctor's grin was so large Jack was amazed it even fit on his face. "Nope. Not until you drink it."

Jack stared at the cup. The scent of it was so tempting. So tantalizing. He could almost taste it. The bitter bite of the coffee, the smooth taste of the chocolate swirling with the slight spice of the cinnamon.

At last, he picked up the cup and put it to his lips. Parting them, he threw his head back and poured the cold liquid down in one gulp, slamming the now empty cup down on the table when it was finished.

The Doctor, true to his word, handed the wrist-strap over and watched as Jack greedily put it on. Stroking the interface almost as lovingly as the Doctor himself stroked the TARDIS console.

"Well, as much as I've enjoyed this little excursion, this is where we part ways, Captain."

"What?" Jack said, looking up at him in surprise. "What? Why?"

"You don't need me anymore. Well, not right at this moment."

"Are you mental? Of course I do!" Jack replied. "You and me, traveling through time and space. Saving the universe, just like the old days."

He smiled, leaning back in his seat. "That's just it Jack," he said. "Your perspective of the old days isn't exactly the same as mine anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"When was the last time you saw me before all of this?"

Jack didn't hesitate. Not even for a moment. "The reality bomb and the Daleks. With two of you, and Donna. And Rose, Martha, Micky. Hell, even Jackie was there." He stopped, realization dawning on him. But he didn't want to be the one to say it.

The Doctor watched him, and was able to pinpoint the moment when Jack understood. "That wasn't the last time I saw you. Last time I saw you, you were going gray, a bit saggy around the middle. Not much, but a bit."

"You know I'm vain, Doctor," Jack reminded him with a small smirk.

He laughed, giving a nod. "Yeah, I know. You kept reminding me. And I was breaking up a fight you were in all over some bloke. It was really funny, actually. Martha was threatening to leave you behind. I got an elbow in my eye. And the police were just stupefied. Not their fault though, they were all rookies. Well, most of them."

"You know you're not supposed to be telling me this."

"Doesn't make any difference. It still happened, will happen. See, the thing about time-"

"Don't," he said. "You've told me this a thousand times."

"I wasn't going to say Timey-Wimey. Or that it's a ball of stuff, which is what it is," the Doctor said thoughtfully before becoming serious again. "The thing about time and **you **is that the things you do, the things that you come into contact with, they become a fact. Because you're a fact. To try and alter those would create a paradox. Especially if I've come into contact with you periodically. Say... I pick you up, and it's your third time on the TARDIS from your perspective. From mine it's, oh, the seventh. This means that trips three through six from my perspective happened when you were older than you are on the seventh trip. Thus, the seventh trip already happened from your perspective, making it the third trip. This is really fundamental time travel stuff here, Jack. But unfortunately, it's you. If it was Rose, or Martha, that's one thing. Various times for them can be erased, altered. Circumstances made to be completely different."

Jack nodded. "But for me, whatever's brought me back into the TARDIS can't be changed in any way. Because I was there, and I saw it, or I did it, it's become a fact. Like me."

"Exactly. So, you see Jack. I can't do what you want. I can't go back and prevent the 456 from going to Earth even the first time. Because when I first learned of it, I'd just come into contact with a much older you who had lived through it and survived it. Had moved on. If I'd tried to interfere..."

"End of the world?"

"Belgium."

"What?"

The Doctor laughed softly, shook his head, and smiled. "Nothing, nothing. But you get the general idea. Alter your past at that specific point muddles it up for the rest of us."

Jack sighed, reaching for the empty cup. He held it for a moment before tapping it gently on the tabletop. "So," he said. "Is that it then? Leave me behind. No other explanation than the usual reasons of personal time lines and all that."

Slowly, the Doctor nodded. He wanted to say more. To tell Jack what was going to happen next. What was going to happen to him soon. But if this was going to turn out the way Jack, an older Jack, told him it should then he could not breathe a word of it. Yet... the Time Lord didn't want this moment to end so soon. End on such a dour note.

"Jack," he said, pushing his seat back to stand on two legs. "You know that thing I keep brushing off by throwing us into trouble again? That thing the TARDIS keeps doing to you?"

"Yeah?" he asked, his forhead creased in thought. "What about it? You said-"

"I may have... omitted a few things in that explanation."


	3. Part 3

**Written by Z**

**Conceived by Z & twtl**

**DISCLAIMER: Jack Harkness, The Doctor, The TARDIS. Torchwood. Doctor Who. None of it belongs to us. AT ALL. Also, Planet of the Apes does not belong to us either. We'd also like to say that we have NO LOVE for the 11th Doctor. NO LOVE.**

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**TORCHWOOD: RESURRECTION**

**PREQUEL 1 - TIME HEALS**

**Part 3.**

"You omitted things? How many things are we talking about here?"

"Well... I can't go into specific detail," the Doctor said, scratching the back of his head. He found, oddly for this situation, that he may actually like a haircut. Not anything too major, just a trim.

Jack gave him a hard stare, and the Doctor laughed nervously. "Well, you've obviously figured out that it's not just to, well, comfort you."

"I gathered that the 200th time she showed me Ianto's death, Doc." The sarcasm saturating Jack's voice was so thick it could have been cut into bricks. "Not comforting at all."

He nodded, letting his seat fall back onto all four legs once again. He leaned forward, talking while moving his hands, something Jack knew happened when he was frustrated and trying to mold his thoughts into a form others could understand. "She's been testing you, trying to see where, exactly, in time you're from. Not the big picture, but the little one for once. There's so many different versions of reality, all intersecting and criss-crossing. And to make sure she's got the right, well, you, she's been sort of showing a reel of different possible realities to find the one that fits."

"But why?"

"So she, and I, know what we're dealing with. Who we're dealing with. We've come across so many of you that she's had to keep files, entire catalogues filled with nothing but your information. Though... I think it's safe to say that this you seems to be the one we see most often."

Jack all but snickered at his remarks. Who knew being immortal could cause such a big fuss to a time traveler. "So she's actively sorting through the files by showing them to me in my sleep?"

He nodded. "It helps that you're telepathically inclined. If you weren't, she wouldn't be able to sort it all out until your brain imploded inside your skull from too much information. She relays to you the information she's gathered from the other yous she has encountered, and your subconscious does the rest. Interacting with what you know, and ignoring the things you don't."

Jack thought about this a moment, trying to process what the Doctor was telling him. Though the explanation seemed logical. The TARDIS was a living being, one that could get inside your head and make you sound like a native speaker to the locals but also make them sound English to him, it wasn't too far of a stretch to believe what the Time Lord was telling him. But other things nagged at his thoughts too. Things he had been trying to piece together. Things unrelated to what the TARDIS had kept doing to him night after night.

"Tell me, Doc," he said at last. "There's something that's been bugging me. You've told me why you can't go back and save them. You gave me the logic, the techno-babble, and the facts."

The Doctor nodded, scratching his head again as he puzzled out where Jack might be going with this. His conclusion was, as always, on the mark.

"But you told me before, a few months back, that you can't because of your time-line. Ignoring the fact that you'd already met a future me, why did you say it?"

He had been dreading this question. He had been covering it with the facts. Sidestepping around it as more and more questions, more scientific and answerable had come up. But this one, he did not want to answer despite his solemn vow to himself months ago that he would. Reluctantly, he sighed and nodded.

It had always been hard to look at Jack and feed him bold faced lies. Ever since that first time the other man had come to him for help, his graying hair frazzled as he repeatedly tried to steer the TARDIS into a black hole as he suffered such an unexplainable and somewhat violent emotional roller coaster. For this Jack sitting across from him, he knew, it would be another two centuries before that time would come. But for the Doctor, twenty years had passed and not a single day since had he been able to look him in the eye and lie. Only just barely dance around the truth when the situation was necessary.

This was one of those situations. And dance around it he did.

"I was already there, Jack."

Jack's stare turned into a bitter, angry glare as the next words from his mouth were spat out with equally as much venom as he felt. "Gwen was right," he said. "You-"

The Doctor's brown eyes softened. He knew what was coming next. Because unlike himself, Jack's mouth knew no bounds when it came to information, timing, and time traveling. He'd known, and yet denied it to himself, how this day was going to end. Because Jack himself had already told him. And told him to be ready for whatever stinging words would come. "It's not what you think."

"No. You were already there. And you did nothing. You... she was right. I told her there had to be a reason. They were blocking signals. They were somehow controlling time, bending it, keeping you at bay. But all along, she was right. I was fooling myself, thinking you actually cared about our planet," Jack spat out. "You looked at us. All of us, and you turned away."

"Let me explain-"

But Jack would not let the usually overly talkative man get a word in. "What's there to explain, Doctor? The only man in the entire universe who could have sent them packing, running scared with their tentacles between their... other tentacles! The entire human race that you love, that you claim to admire at every opportunity, a planet that depended on you. And you take a holiday!"

He rose from his seat, glaring at the Doctor in disgust and rage. He was ready to walk away. Ready to leave. He had, thanks to this so-called savior he had looked up to, had thought he knew, his old wrist-strap. If he couldn't teleport, he knew he could find another ship. He could get as far away as possible. He could turn his back and run. Show the Doctor the kind of man he had molded Jack into.

"I was there for you, Jack," the Doctor said, his voice neither angry nor hurt by the words flung at him. If he was upset, Jack could not hear even a hint of it in his words. "I had a choice to make, just like you did."

"You have no idea-"

"I have every idea what you went through," the Doctor said, his authoritative tone forcing Jack to turn back to him, to look him in the eye for the first time since this battle of emotions and words and wills began. "I know because you told me. Don't you think I tried to stop it? Ninety-nine times Jack. Each time just as disastrous as the last. How do you think the TARDIS was able to get so many different time-lines for you? Yeah, I could have saved him. Every time I did, do you know what I had to do Jack?" Finally, the Doctor rose from his seat.

Their argument by now was already gaining attention. People in the street had stopped to watch them in facination, trying to piece together the soap opera taking place right before their eyes.

"They didn't stop with 10%. They would have come back. Again and again like clockwork. Every decade. Just long enough for the humans to have more children. More children allowed to live just barely long enough before being snatched away from their homes. Or how about the times I tried to interfere in 1969? Should I tell you about the chain reaction that kicked off? Earth conquered by the Cybermen? The Daleks! There was even one Earth ruled by apes! APES Jack! I thought that was only a film!"

Jack was quiet now, but his anger bubbled just beneath the surface.

"I'd crossed my own time-line so many times that I could swear I saw myself wearing a tweed jacket with no eyebrows. And a forehead big enough to build a continent on! Do you know how horrifying that is?! A whole bloody continent! And I'll bet I'll be calling it Smithonia.... Yeah, Smithonia. And it's your fault! I could have tripped over a flying space brick, or even a rainbow painted piano falling on my head, but no. I got the silly notion that I could save YOU by saving your precious Steven, and your obsessive compulsive coffee boy!" The Doctor's voice was roaring now. He hadn't intended it to go this far. Old Jack had been sparse on the exact words that would be exchanged in this encounter. It wasn't that he was given a script. No, in true Jack fashion he couldn't do the sensible thing like Sally Sparrow and write everything down. But just the thought of that one trip... that one time when he met himself by accident. That was the most horrifying of all. Inwardly, he shuddered at the vision of the tweed and no eyebrows. At least his taste in companions wouldn't change much. But someone had to do something about those clothes. He looked like Indiana Jones in that outfit... before he went exploring.

"You're not making any sense!" Jack snapped.

"I know!" the Doctor replied, trying to remember where he'd been before he digressed to the various versions of Earth he'd seen as a result of his meddling. "The point is, Jack, that I couldn't go back one more time if I'd wanted to. It took three of me to sort it out and get the entire time-line back to where it started. Thankfully, the Eighth me is far more useful than the Eleventh when it comes to paradoxes and parallels. And Dalek exterminating. But that's not the point. The point is that I did all of that for **you**. Because you asked me to. You came to me, begging me to do it. At the time, I didn't know any better, and against my better judgement I did. But do you know what I finally did at the end? I went back. Twice. Once to pick you up, the next to drop you back off at the end of the week."

"No you didn't!" Jack was quick to snap back at him. "You never showed your face! Gwen, Ianto, and I were the ones cleaning up the mess while you-"

"Not..." The Doctor was beyond frustrated now. He was rubbing his temple, trying to think of the best way to put it without placing too much in jeopardy. It wasn't only Jack's future his words would affect. It was his own past. Indeed, the pasts of many others were intertwined in this one single moment he had been putting off for three months now. Suddenly, he was grateful this planet was one of docile, peaceful peoples who had never heard voices raised except in joy and jubilation. That this world was so much like Earth that it was familiar enough to be at ease, but yet so drastically different that screaming in the streets as they were now could be met with curiosity and not the brutal force of billy clubs and handcuffs.

"Not you, you egotistical hypercritical alcoholic... _ass_!" the Doctor shouted in his frustration. "**Older** you! After the hell you went through the first time, do you really think I'd let you go through it again? Let your son be handed over just because some drugged up monster willed it? After what you were forced to do t-"

He slapped a hand over his mouth, his brown eyes wide in horror at the words that had come out of his mouth. He had not meant for that particular thing to come out of his mouth. When he dared to look at the Captain next, he saw that it had caught him just as much off guard. Silence fell. An awkward silence that neither man dared break with words or questions. The pair had drawn quite the crowd. Some even stopping to take pictures, for they had never seen such a sight. Some even believed it was a new drama, performance artists putting on a strange new kind of show.

It was the impossible man who broke the silence first. "I-"

"I've said to much," the Doctor quickly interrupted. "It's useless to say forget I said anything. But forget it."

Jack saw he was tense. And for just an instant, the briefest of moments, he forgot his anger. Forgot his rage and fury and wanted to go to him. To grab him and just hold him in his arms. But such feelings passed, and he was once again filled with his anger at the other man. "You're unbelievable," Jack said. "Just leave. I don't need you anymore anyway now that I've got this." He tapped his wrist-strap with a haughty smirk. "You might have a sports car, but mine's got an escape hatch."

"Jack-"

He flipped the interface open, blinded by his anger at the man whom he thought could always be counted on, and didn't stop long enough to check that the transporter function was working properly.

The Doctor stared on as the onlookers shielded their eyes. When they looked back, all they saw of the strange angry man was a pair of pants laying on the pavement.

Despite what had just transpired, the Doctor couldn't help but smile and shake his head. It seemed the TARDIS was playing her tricks again. He only hoped that where ever Jack had gone to, he'd remembered to wear something under his trousers that day.


	4. Part 4 AKA THE CRACKY ENDING

**Written by Z**

**Conceived by Z & twtl**

**DISCLAIMER: Jack Harkness, The Doctor, The TARDIS. Torchwood. Doctor Who. None of it belongs to us. **

**WARNING: THIS PART IS PURE CRACK!!!!**

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**TORCHWOOD: RESURRECTION**

**PREQUEL 1 - TIME HEALS**

**Part 4 - END.**

The Doctor found himself carrying a pair of dark blue trousers back to the TARDIS. He knew the how of the act. It was easy to see, after going over them with the sonic screwdriver, that the material had been infused with huon particles. That fact felt like a stab in his hearts as he remembered the last time he had dealt with huon energy. Donna had looked every bit the blushing bride then. Blushing with red-hot rage in her cheeks.

But the Why of it was still unclear. Even the belt was still threaded through the loops on the trousers. All in all, it befuddled him greatly.

When he had returned, the TARDIS hummed in content. But restless. Anxious to know how things had gone. The Doctor knew without asking that she had been monitoring them. He knew that she knew before they had left that morning to venture into the streets on a grand day out of relaxation exactly how it would turn out. How could she not? She could see into every nook, every cranny of time and space. Further than even he was capable of.

And yet she had insisted, in her own way, that they go and enjoy themselves.

"Is this your idea of a joke?" the Doctor demanded, holding up the trousers and giving them a bit of a shake. The TARDIS hummed busily in reply. "You could have at least let him keep his dignity."

The lights dimmed as he tossed the offending clothing over a railing. The old girl knew she had gone too far with that. But she also could not help seizing the opportunity to show off not only what she could do, but also certain assets of one of her favorite passengers.

"You know, the entire time he was here, you were making him miserable." His tone was one of scolding. And the TARDIS picked up on how horrible he was feeling. She responded in kind by blinking a few lights on her console apologetically.

He sighed, stroking the edge of the console before squaring his shoulders and gathering his bearings. "So then, where off to next? Let's check up on the Slytheen, make sure they're not causing another fuss, eh?" He adjusted a control or two, but the TARDIS groaned and sparked at him in refusal.

"Alright then. Let's liven up the day, shall we?" He grinned. "I never did get to see _Star Trek 11_. Ooo! Maybe if we're lucky they'll be playing it at the cheap seats Ultra-Multi-Plex Theatre in the Quintos System! I could sneak in." He reached out to plot in the coordinates, and this time the TARDIS didn't put up a fuss.

Mainly because he'd grabbed the big rubber mallet and was ready to bring his foot up to push one of the levers forward. Even she knew not to argue with him when he had the big rubber mallet.

It wasn't renamed _The Hammer of Donna_ out of nostalgia.

---

When Jack arrived on the cargo ship in orbit around Helios 3, he had not been expecting the shock and awe welcome he received. Which only became more shock and awe as he put his hands on his waists. Followed promptly by "Is it just me, or is it freezing in here?"

It didn't help matters that the cargo of said ship was bananas exported from Ensidra 9. Apparently, it was their largest export, and had been for the last three thousand years.

When Jack noticed the writing on the crates was not in a language he understood, he swore rather loudly. Not only was the Doctor now mad at him, and he knew he well deserved it, but so likewise did the Doctor, but the TARDIS refused to renew his subscription to the "Any Language to TARDIS Dictionary" as a result.

Then, he noticed, he had no pants. Again. He knew he should have put on boxers when he got out of the shower that morning. But no, why should he? It wasn't like he was going to intentionally teleport somewhere without his pants.

"That son of a-!"

"Well well. Not like this is a surprise."

Jack turned around. Sitting atop one of the stacks of crates was a familiar sight he had hoped not to run into again any time soon. Or ever.

"If I knew pants were optional, I would have left mine in the cabin," the scrawny, blond haired man said with a smirk as he ate a banana and kicked his feet. Looking down at Jack, he shook his head and laughed.

"John..." Jack muttered under his breath.

"Hey mate. Need a hand? Some trousers maybe? Not that I don't like the view, but your one e-"

"Just get me some damn pants!" Jack shouted angrily as the other ex-Time Agent hopped down from his perch with a spare banana in hand.

"Hungry? This bloke I know hooked me up with an infinite supply of these things. But I sold it to this other bloke I know, Dr. John Smith, since he's always running out. What one man does with so many of these hideous yellow things is anyone's guess."

Jack rolled his eyes and snatched it from his hand. "You'd be suprised."

---

The Doctor was trying to barricade the doors of the TARDIS, who was also trying to keep herself closed against the onslaught of the red-headed menace that was River Song.

"Doctor!" the woman outside cried out. "Doctor! Open the door!"

"No!" he replied. "Not until you go away! I told you the last time, I _can't stand_ archaeologists!"

"But Doctor! It's our wedding day!"

"I got a cold nose!" he shouted back.

She kept banging on the door. "Cold feet! It's cold feet you scrawny nancy boy!"

"You've got the wrong one! Spoilers! SPOILERS!"

He could hear the lock turn, and frantically tried to lock it back. "I only met you just last year! And it was in a library!"

"Doctor!" the woman shouted after she had stopped her assault on the doors. "Stop making excuses. I already know you forgot what today is. Jack told me. Just come out here and-"

"TARDIS!" he exclaimed, turning the sonic screwdriver onto the locks before running for the console. "Get me out of here!"

The TARDIS was more than happy to oblige him. Her engines whirred, and she groaned in the effort in took to shake herself away from there. The Doctor was at first relieved. Until he noticed something odd about the TARDIS. She was leaving, yes. But the fact that he could now see through her walls and at a rather confused wedding party could only mean one thing. Somehow, he wasn't going with her.

And for the moment, there was nothing he could do about it.

Suddenly, when the last of his beloved home and spaceship had vanished, he felt a slight draft in the general area around his legs. The red-headed archaeologist covered her mouth to keep from shouting in surprise as a shaggy haired young man hurried down the aisle to him.

And trying to keep his voice down, the shaggy brown haired man hissed at him. "Dad, don't panic. But you've no pants."

"How... But... You're...." The Doctor found himself at a loss for words, unable to look down to confirm with his eyes what he knew had happened.

"How... how could you do this!" River Song shouted, pushing past the young man and hitting the Doctor with her bouquet of rather thorny roses. "I knew you were eccentric, but this?! Today of all days!"

It was as the Doctor was trying to protect himself from the flower powered assualt, and the young man who had called him dad was trying to wrap his own suit jacket around his waist to hide his lower regions from view that he heard a cackle from behind a set of double doors behind him.

A cackle that he knew far too well.

"JACK!!!" The Doctor roared in all the fury he could have ever mustered when the young man finally managed to tie the sleeves of his coat into a knot behind the Doctor's waist. River Song was still hitting him with what was left of her bouquet.

---

Thus began a series of tactical strikes that had lasted, in our sense of time, for a year. Wherein at each and every opportunity, The Doctor, with the aid of his trust TARDIS would remotely teleport either Captain Jack or his pants through random points of space and time. And Jack would retaliate, with the help of his old partner John Hart, by picking the most embarrassing situations possible and making them even worse for the poor Time Lord. Usually by the forceful dematerialization of the TARDIS while he was singing in the shower with a rubber duckie. Or, alternatively, wearing the same suit he had first met Donna Noble in... which just happened to be saturated with huon energy as a result of that encounter. The TARDIS, in her infinite amusement and affinity for Jack of course was more than willing to play along.

This, of course, continued until Jack had decided to settle for a while on the planet Tellios 7, where clothing was strictly optional. After which the point of their ongoing dispute over pants became pointless. Though in a way Jack did miss plotting his tactical strikes. They gave him something to do, something to look forward to. And over time as their strange little game had gone on, he came to realize there was so much more to living than carrying a book full of names and dates, and avoiding everything that reminded you of those you've lost and left behind.

Besides, how could he forget them when everywhere he turned seemed to be filled with reminders of little things. And every Starbucks in the galaxy, he noticed, all seemed to carry a certain blend of coffee he couldn't quite place... but always reminded him of home.

* * *

A/N - Well wasn't that a bit cracky! "Time Heals" was written in dedication to _Hellsing-s-cry-ed_ on deviantArt.


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